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PN 1701 
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AMA LEAGUE 
OF AMERICA 



EXECUTIVE OFFICE: 
736 MARQUETTE BUILDING, CHICAGO 




^he Study of Drama 
in the High School 



3u ALICE HOWARD SPAULDING 
January 19 13 



m 



Copyright 1913, by Drama League of America 



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Drama League of America 

Executive Office: 736 Marquette Building, Chicago 
Telephone Randolph 3622 



PRESIDENT 
Mrs, Charles Howard Besly - Hinsdale, 111. 

SECRETARY 
Mrs. Harry P. Jones - 5529 Cornell Avenue, Chicago 

TREASURER 

Mr. William T. Abbott Chicago 

Vice-President Central Trust Co. of Illinois 

VICE-PRESIDENTS 
Mrs. Herman Landauer ----- Chicago 

Chairman Finance Committee 
Dr. Richard Burton ----- Minneapolis 

Mrs. E. P. Sherry ------ Milwaukee 

Mr. Louis K. Anspacher ----- New York 

Mr. Frank Chouteau Brown ----- Boston 

Mrs. Otis Skinner ------ Philadelphia 

Chairman Drama-Study Department 
Prof. Brander Matthews, Columbia University, New York 

DIRECTORS 

Prof. George P. Baker ------ Boston 

Mrs. Enos M. Barton ----- Hinsdale, 111. 

Mrs. A. Starr Best - — - - - Evanston, 111. 

Chairman Publicity Committee 
Mrs. Wilbur F. Blackford * ■* - - - Chicago 

Mrs. John H. Buckingham / '- - - - - Chicago 
Mrs. George B. Carpenter" ----- Chicago 
Mr. Hobart C. Chatfield-Taylor - - - - Chicago 

Mr. S.H.Clark Chicago 

Mr. Theodore B. Hinckley Chicago 

Chairman Educational Committee 
Miss Alice M. Houston - - - - Evanston, 111. 

Chairman Playgoing Committee 

Mr. Eames MacVeagh Chicago 

Mrs. Ira Nelson Morris - Chicago 

Mr. John C. Shaffer Chicago 

Mrs. Paul Shorey ------- Chicago 

Mr. John E. Williams Streator, 111. 



This article in briefer form was first published in the leaflets of 
The New England Association of Teachers of English 



©CI.A3307 



The Study of Drama in the 
High School 




AVING always been extremely 
fond of the theater, and having 
retained in my memory delightful 
recollections of reading in school 
The Merchant of Venice and Mac- 
beth, in preparation for seeing 
them produced, I was attracted 
during my college days to a course bearing the 
title, "History of the Drama." From the first 
day that I attended the course I found it a 
delight — and a wonder. Why had nobody in 
school ever told me that there had been other 
play-writers besides Shakspere? Why had 
1 never read Goldsmith, Sheridan, and others ? 
With much hesitation, and ashamed of my 
disloyalty, 1 came to the conclusion that my 
course in high school, which I had deemed so 
broad, was peculiarly narrow. I wondered 
why it was. 

Two years later I began to teach, and then 
I saw a few reasons why: there were so many 
other things to do; there was so much the 
tendency in the teaching of English to keep 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

along the beaten path; there were so few books 
available; and there was so much of the old 
prejudice against anyone or anything con- 
nected with the stage. By frequent friendly 
talks with pupils then and since, I gradually 
learned much concerning their acquaintance 
with theatrical matters and their tastes; and 
I came to see that my own interest in the sub- 
ject was the least important consideration. The 
schools which paid elaborate attention to in- 
struction in the laws of embroidery, music, and 
art were doing nothing to inculcate in future 
citizens equally high standards of the drama. 
Boys, and sometimes girls, were going once a 
week, or oftener, to see vulgar musical come- 
dies, lurid melodramas, or so-called "problem 
plays" with little or no claim to truth or artistic 
merit. If something really good came to town 
they stayed away; they inferred, from expe- 
rience in school, that anything which could by 
any chance be called artistic or literary must be 
"something stupid that you picked to pieces," 
as one of my pupils once denned a classic. The 
parents of these pupils were no help either. 
They felt secure with a Shakspere play, which 
they might attend with the feeling of perform- 
ing a sacred duty, but beyond that they merely 
"knew what amused them." 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

Here, then, was an opportunity which the 
school was failing to grasp: the theater, a 
powerful force in society, was being absolutely 
ignored, and the drama, containing some of 
the noblest work in all literature, was being 
treated as unworthy to take its place with the 
other arts. 

Following these observations have succeeded 
five years of experimenting in the formulation 
of a course in the history and technique of the 
drama, which would meet the needs of high- 
school pupils. Even yet, the plan is not en- 
tirely satisfactory — but each class helps me to 
come a little nearer an adequate working plan, 
and each of the last three years I have enjoyed 
the inestimable privilege of courses in history 
of drama and playwriting under the instruction 
of Professor G. P. Baker, of Harvard, whose 
interest and co-operation have been of the 
greatest aid in all my problems. Without 
these courses, or their equivalent in individual 
research, I do not see how it is possible to do 
justice to work in the drama, an art which is 
so much misunderstood. 

The course, as it stands at present, consists 
of two parts: I, History; II, Technique. 
These two parts, carried on partly by lectures, 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

partly by class discussion have a threefold aim: 
(i) to give the students a cursory view of the 
development of the drama, and the forces con- 
tributing thereto, from the fifteenth century 
to the present; (2) to give the students enough 
knowledge of the technique of dramatic art 
to enable them to discriminate a little more 
correctly between what is true and beautiful 
and what is false and inartistic in the plays 
which they read or see; (3) to make them so 
much enjoy what is good that they will cease 
to be satisfied with anything lower. Hence, 
it is evident that the two subjects, while con- 
sidered here under two separate heads, must be 
carried on more or less at the same time. The 
textbooks which can be used for systematizing 
and illustrating the subject are: 

Mario Borsa, The English Stage of Today (Lane) 

Clayton Hamilton, The Theory of the Theater 

Montrose J. Moses, American Dramatists 

Brander Matthews, The Study of the Drama 
(Houghton Mifflin Co.) 

Manly, Specimens of Elizabethan Drama (Ginn) 

The "Belles Lettres Series" (Heath) 

Certain volumes in "Everyman's Library" 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

Dr. Elizabeth Woodbridge, The Drama; Its Laws 

and Technique 
Dr. Alfred Hennequin, The Art of Play-writing 
William Archer, Play-making 

The plan of the course, accompanied by 
wide supplementary reading and frequent dis- 
cussion of current plays as illustrative material, 
is as follows: 

I. Technique: i. What Constitutes a Play. 
2. Characterization — Interest, Truth, Value of Char- 
acters, Variety and Contrast. 3. Plot and Story — 
Definition of Terms; Action, Exposition; Unity, 
Clearness, Emphasis, Proportion; Suspense, Cli- 
max, Interest. 4. Dialogue — Truth, Value, Inter- 
est. 5. Theme — Novelty, Interest, Fitness. 6. Set- 
ting. 7. Kinds of Drama — Comedy, Tragedy, 
Mediated Forms; or, Story Play, Character Play, 
Play of Ideas. 

II. History: 1. Lectures on Classic Drama and 
Theater. 2. Antigone, Agamemnon, or Medea, and 
one comedy. 3. Lectures on Tropes and Miracles. 
4. Sacrifice of Isaac, Noah's Flood, and Secunda 
Pastorum. 5. Lecture on Moralities. 6. Discussion 
of one ancient and one modern morality. 7. Ralph 
Roister Doister. 8. Lecture on Elizabethan Theater. 
9. One play each of Lyly and Kyd; two of Christo- 
pher Marlowe. 10. Lecture on Shakspere and his 
accomplishment, n. Discussions of six plays of 
Shakspere. 12. Lectures on Restoration Period, 



The Study of Drama in the High School 



Heroic Drama, Great Actors. 13. Lecture on 
Goldsmith and Sheridan. 14. Two plays each of 
Goldsmith and Sheridan. 15. Lectures on Drama 
of Early Nineteenth Century: Romantic Period 
and Closet Drama. 16. One play each of Lytton, 
Tennyson, and Browning. 17. Lecture on Robert- 
son and His Influence. 18. One play of Robert- 
son. 19. Lectures on Modern Drama: Gilbert 
and Sullivan; Ibsen and His Influence; Pinero, 
Jones, Wilde, Shaw; The Irish and Manchester 
Movements; Theories of Reinhart and Craig. 
20. One play of Ibsen. 21. One play each of 
Pinero, Jones, Wilde; two or three of Shaw, Yeats, 
Synge, and other modern writers. 2 2 . A long paper : 
criticism of a current play, exposition of a move- 
ment in field of drama, or other assigned topic. 

In adapting this outline to his own special 
case, the reader should bear in mind several 
points. In the first place, the outline is not 
followed rigidly: two lectures may be ex- 
panded to five, if the class is interested enough 
to interrupt and ask for the application of cer- 
tain technical principles to a concrete case. 
The pupils' questions are always given prece- 
dence over the planned work, and the freest 
discussion of plays with which the class is ac- 
quainted is urged. The class may be one 
whose highest ideal is Bertha, the Sewing 
Machine Girl; in which case the discussion 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

starts with that as a basis. We look at the 
play honestly and without any spirit of derision 
to see where the plot is old, where the incidents 
are forced and unreal, where the characteri- 
zation is inconsistent and untrue — or where, 
perchance, it is right. Under no circumstances 
is any individual's opinion ridiculed, even 
though he may rate nameless melodramatists 
on a plane with the immortal William. By 
thus giving each pupil confidence in his own 
judgment, we get the frankest statement of 
tastes. And one of the delights to the person 
conducting the course is to observe the gradual 
— and unconscious — change of the pupils' 
tastes, as manifested in the written papers or 
personal conversations. Finally, the plays 
discussed formally in class represent but a 
small portion of the pupil's reading. The 
supplementary reading, however, I do not take 
into consideration at all in marking the pupils. 
They understand that it is for pleasure and to 
furnish a source from which they may choose 
plays for frequent written discussions. Of 
course, too, the reports, consisting merely of the 
amount read each week, serve the instructor as 
a sort of thermometer for measuring the en- 
thusiasm. It is the rare pupil who does not 
report at least four extra hours a week. 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

The written criticisms I consider of the ut- 
most importance to the students as a means 
of clarifying their thought; and I find that the 
students themselves agree with me, since their 
comments on last year's course expressed 
almost unanimous desire that the number of 
review papers and essays discussing the prob- 
lems in technique be increased. These criti- 
cisms, from four to twelve pages in length, are 
generally built more or less closely around the 
following outline, which I dictate early in the 
course. This scheme the pupils may apply 
to any play which they read or see within the 
next twenty-four hours. They realize that 
the outline is merely suggested as a help, and 
is not intended to hamper or restrict them; so, 
as their knowledge and discrimination in- 
creases, their own individuality covers the bones 
of the skeleton more and more adequately. 

Outline for Dramatic Criticism 
I. Characterization 

i. Are the characters types or individuals? 

2. Are they equally interesting? true to 
life ? necessary ? 

3. Is there contrast and variety among 
them? 

4. What roles offer special opportunity to 
the actor? 



The Study of Drama in the High School 



II. Plot and Story 

i. Statement of Plot (Formula: A desires 
to accomplish .... but is opposed by 
B. The result is X) 

2. Interest and novelty 

a) of material 

b) of treatment 

3. Clearness 

a) Exposition 

b) Action 

4. Emphasis or Proportion — Right or Wrong 

a) Plots 

b) Incidents 

c) Exposition and Action 

5. Unity 

6. Contrast and Variety 

7. Suspense and Climax 

8. Denouement — is it inevitable result of 
what has preceded ? 

III. Dialogue 

1. Interest 

2. Truth to Life 

3. Value — is it useful or merely literary? 

IV. Theme 

1. Appeal — is it general or special? 

2. Novelty and Timeliness 

3. Ethical Value 

4. Dramatist's Attitude toward Theme^ — 
is it partisan ? 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

V. Setting, or Environment 
i. Degree of Interest 

2. Relation of Setting to Plot and Characters 

3. Devices for Acquainting Audience with 
Setting 

VI. Classification of Play, and Arguments There- 
for 
VII. General Remarks 

1. Interest, Novelty, Literary Merit of Play 
as Whole 

2. Relative Importance of Plot, Character, 
and Dialogue 

3. Timeliness, Truth to Life, Ethical Impor- 
tance 

4. Acting Parts 

This outline indicates also the line of thought 
followed in general in the class discussions. 
Of course, there come in all sorts of related 
questions the discussion of which we never 
postpone, for they are generally suggested by 
some interested student. Some of those 
raised last year were: What is there in Every- 
man which makes it grip even a modern audi- 
ence ? Wherein lies Shakspere's superiority 
as a dramatist over his contemporaries ? What 
is there in The School for Scandal and The 
Rivals which makes them still so popular? 
Why were Tennyson's and Browning's plays 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

failures when produced? Could not a good 
play be made out of The Lady of Lyons if a less 
sentimental writer did it over ? Is it true that 
Ibsen is an immoral writer? What makes a 
play moral or immoral? Don't you think 
Wilde's wit is very self-conscious ? Are 
Shaw's later plays as good technically as his 
earlier ones ? 

There is another way in which the technical 
side of the work may be made to appeal to the 
more enthusiastic pupils. At the beginning 
I say to the class that if there are any who 
would like to try their hand at writing a one- 
act play, I shall be glad to help them. I urge 
nobody to write — the attempt must be vol- 
untary — but I get some very interesting results. 
Of course, the greatest difficulty is to dissuade 
the more ambitious from a five-act tragedy 
in the Shaksperian mode, so confident are they 
at first. The first year in which the oppor- 
tunity was offered I received one long morality 
in blank verse and a delightful little mediaeval 
drama also in verse; but these were the work 
of two very unusual girls and do not by any 
means represent the average. The following 
year I received a farce which was presented 
by the seniors at their annual social. It was 
crude, of course, but it compared favorably 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

with many which we have obtained from the 
play-dealers; and the important point was 
that the author learned a vast deal about drama 
construction in the writing, revising, and re- 
hearsing of his own little play. The next year 
I received three plays, one of which was revised, 
and given at the senior social. Last year I 
had a little humorous play in the morality 
mode, interesting for its atmosphere. This 
sort of work is, of course, done entirely out of 
class by means of conferences with the teacher. 

I am aware that some of my co-laborers in 
this very exigent field are beginning to wonder 
how I manage to get this amount of time to 
spend on an "extra." In the first place, I 
do not consider the work an extra, but, rather, 
of prime importance; in the second, I am 
merely concentrating my attention for four or 
five months on a subject which, in most schools, 
is treated four or five times, one month at a 
time, during the four years. Moreover, assum- 
ing that out of the forty months available we 
devote fifteen to rhetoric and composition and 
twenty-five to literature, it does not seem to 
me disproportionate to spend four consecutive 
months in hard study of drama, when we have 
twenty-one remaining to devote to the novel, 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

the essay, and poetry. In detail, however, the 
four years' course in literature is arranged as 
follows : 

Freshman Year. First half — Gayley's 
Classic Myths and Old Testament Narratives; 
second half — American Literature and one 
Shakspere comedy. The pupils' attention 
is directed to the story, the characterization, 
the comic relief, and the beautiful poetry, some 
of which is committed to memory. The pupils 
grow very much interested in planning stage 
sets and costumes and in deciding how certain 
scenes should be acted, drawing the evidence 
for their arguments from the text. Again, as 
in Midsummer-Night's Dream, they like to know 
that it was probably written for a wedding 
celebration, and to find out for themselves the 
various ways in which Shakspere has handled 
his material to suit the occasion. In this way 
they come to perceive the right emphasis of 
the plots and the purpose that each serves. 
Here, too, of course, will enter inevitably 
questions and discussion concerning the com- 
parative merits of this and other plays which 
they have seen. 

Sophomore Year. Rapid readings illus- 
trating the literature of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. Sheridan's Rivals and 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

Goldsmith's two plays are suited to this year 
and may be read with sufficient thoroughness 
in ten recitations, studying especially emphasis 
of plot, type-figures, and varying excellence 
of dialogue. 

Junior Year. The nineteenth-century 
poets and novelists. 

Senior Year. Burke for five weeks; Milton 
for six weeks; and Shakspere, who is treated 
merely as one — even if the most important — 
figure in the development of the drama. His 
w r ork is illustrated by pretty careful study of 
the three tragedies listed among the college 
requirements, and more rapid reading of three 
of the comedies. In all we spent about four 
months. 

Some, doubtless, wonder how we get along 
with so little attention to the philological side 
of the text. It seems to me that the teaching 
of literature is a matter of proportion and of 
judicious omission. I suppose that much of 
the text does go by my pupils without their 
succeeding in grasping its full meaning, but 
that disturbs me little. Of course, matters 
of text that affect the pupil's appreciation of 
the play as a whole must be explained; but I 
prefer to omit minute dissection and devote 
my time to making the pupils so interested 



The Study of Drama in the High School 

in the book or play that they will care to read 
it over and over, finding for themselves more 
perfect understanding with each reading. 
Indeed, I measure the value of the course to 
the special class chiefly by the degree of my 
success in accomplishing this purpose; also 
by the amount of supplementary reading done 
and the independence of the comments there- 
upon; by the degree of the pupils' ability to 
discuss intelligently, in writing, any drama 
from their outside reading; by their eagerness 
to discuss the subject with me and with each 
other, and, finally, by their comments on what 
they have gained or failed to gain from the 
course as a whole or in part. As a matter of 
fact, my classes are my severest critics in the 
matter of the efficiency of the course. They 
know perfectly well when I have handled a 
point in such a way that they fail to get the 
most from it, and they tell me so with perfect 
courtesy — and frankness, both of us under- 
standing that it is for the sake of the next 
year's class. This feeling of responsibility 
for the success of the experiment is one of the 
things which I work hard to rouse at the be- 
ginning of the course; and the assistance I 
have gained from past students has been 
invaluable. 



The Study of Drama in the High School 



BOOKS OF REFERENCE 

The English Stage of Today, Mario Borsa 

American Dramatists, Montrose J. Moses 

The Theory of the Theater, Clayton Hamilton 

The Study of the Drama, Brander Matthews 

The Drama: Its Law and Technique, 

Elizabeth Woodbridge 
The Art of Play-writing, Alfred Hennequin 

Play-making, William Archer 



PLAYS 
(♦Signifies for use only in classes 
* Agamemnon, 

Antigone, 
*Medea, 

Sacrifice of Isaac 

Noah's Flood 

Secunda Pastorum 

Everyman 

Ralph Roister Doister, 

Endimion, or 

Alexander and Campaspe 

The Spanish Tragedy, 

The Jew of Malta, 

Tamburlaine 

Macbeth, 
*Hamlet, or 
*Othello, or 
*Romeo and Juliet 

Julius Caesar 

Henry V 



beyond high-school age) 
Aeschylus 
Sophocles 
Euripides 



N. Udall 
John Lyly 

Thomas Kyd 
Christopher Marlowe 

William Shakspere 



The Study of Drama in the High School 



Merchant of Venice 

The Tempest, or 

As You Like It 
*Much Ado About Nothing , or 
* Taming of the Shrew 

Midsummer-Night 1 s Dream 
*Love and Honor , or 

The Siege of Rhodes 
*Aurengzebe, or 

The Conquest of Granada 

The Critic, or 
*The School for Scandal 

The Rivals 

The Good-Natured Man, 

She Stoops to Conquer 

Caste, 

Virginius, 

Richelieu, or 

The Lady of Lyons 

Masks and Faces, 

The Cup, or 

The Falcon, or 

The Foresters 
*Queen Mary, or 
* Harold, or 
*Becket 
*Colombe , s Birthday, or 

Strafford, or 
*The Blot on the Scutcheon, or 

In a Balcony 



William D'Avenant 

John Dryden 

R. B. Sheridan 

Oliver Goldsmith 

T. W. Robertson 

Sheridan Knowles 

Bulwer-Lytton 

Read & Taylor 
Alfred Tennyson 



Robert Browning 



The Study of Drama in the High School 



A. W. Pinero 



G. B. Shaw 



*Chastelard, or AC. Swinburne 

*Mary Stuart 

The Silver King, Henry Arthur Jones 

The Case of Rebellious Susan, or 

The Manoeuvres of Jane 
*Mrs. Dane's Defense 

The Magistrate, or 

The Cabinet Minister 
*Sweet Lavender, or 
*The Second Mrs. Tanqueray 

The Princess and the Butterfly 

You Never Can Tell, 

Arms and the Man 

The Devil's Disciple 

Caesar and Cleopatra 
^Candida 

Captain Brassbound's Conversion 
*Major Barbara 

The Dark Ladie of the Sonnets 

Fanny's First Play 

The Importance of Being Earnest, 

Herod, 
*Paolo and Francesca 

Strife, 
^Justice 

The Land of Heart's Desire, 
*Countess Cathleen 

Cathleen Ni Houlihan 

The Hour Glass 

The Shadow of the Glen, 

Riders to the Sea 



Oscar Wilde 
Stephen Phillips 

John Galsworthy 

W. B. Yeats 



J. M. Synge 



The Study of Drama in the High School 



The Playboy of the Western World 

The Birthright, T. C. Murray 

Seven Short Pl-ays, Lady Gregory 

*Nan, John Masefield 



plays (aiierican) 


The Witching Hour, 


Augustus Thomas 


*As a Man Thinks 




The Faith Healer, 


W. V. Moody 


*The Great Divide 




Jeanne D'Arc, 


Percy Mackaye 


The Scarecrow 




* Tomorrow 




The Servant in the House, 


C. R. Kennedy 


The Winter Feast 




Everywoman, 


Walter Browne 


*Marlow, 


J. P- P. Marks 


The Piper 




PLAYS (CONTINENTAL) 


Le Cid, 


Corneille 


Athalie, 


Racine 


UAvare, 


Moliere 


Le Misanthrope 




Les Femmes Savantes 




Les Precieuses Ridicules 




Ruy Bias, 


Victor Hugo 


Hernani 




Les Romanesques, 


E. Rostand 


La Princesse Lointaine 




UAiglon 





20 1913 



The Study of Drama in the High School 


Cyrano de Bergerac 




VOiseau Bleu, 


M. Maeterlinck 


An Enemy of the People, 


H. Ibsen 


Pillars of Society 




Peer Gynt 




The Lady from the Sea 




*The Doll's House 




*Ghosts 




Egmont, 


Goethe 


Iphegenia auf Tauris 




Wilhelm Tell, 


Schiller 


Jungfrau von Orleans 




Maria Stuart 




Nathan der Weise, 


Lessing 


Minna von Barnhelm 




The Far-Away Princess, 


Sudermann 


Thea 




*Heimath (Magda) 




The Sunken Bell, 


Hauptmann 


Hannele 





LIFE OF G. P. A. HEALY 

BY HIS DAUGHTER MARY 

(Madame Charles Bigot) 



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Few artists have had the rare personality 
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statesmen, generals, authors, and brother 
artists — few also have had the art to 
record on canvas their impressions of 
each of these great characters. 
€J Because of its intense human interest 
and its historical accuracy, this little book 
will be read with pleasure by young 
and old. 

"PRICE, ONE DOLLAR 

Mail orders may be ad- 
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174 EAST CHESTNUT STREET 

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U Messrs. A- C. McClurg 
-" & Co. have been in touch 
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its beginnings, and take pleas- 
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books listed in the accom- 
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on sale in their department 
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JTT Furthermore, their 
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